An apparently overlooked aid for students learning a new language that uses a different alphabet,
such as Russian or Greek, is to provide them with text in their native language but written in the
new alphabet. This would give them practice pronouncing words in the new alphabet and allow them
to directly convert in their minds the symbols into sound rather than mentally translating the
the new alphabet into their familiar alphabet and then pronouncing the words. If they are working with
words in the new language in the new alphabet they are not always sure they are getting the right
pronunciation. In contrast with native language text in the new alphabet they get instant feedback
concerning the correctness of their pronunciation.

Consider this example.

Greece is a small country of about eleven million people.
Geographically it is a peninsula made up of
smaller peninsulas. This promoted the early development of marine travel which led to trade
and contact with other cultures.

This transliteration is for classical Greek rather than modern Greek. It is not perfect because there are no Greek equivalents for some of the sounds and letters
of English, such as the ubiquitous uh phoneme (sound) of English. Neither are there any letters or letter
combinations corresponding to the ch and sh sounds of English. Nevertheless a reasonable approximation
can be made.

Here is a table of the correspondences.

The Greek Letters and Their Correspondences
to Latin Letters

Upper

Lower

LatinLetter

Pronunciation

Α

α

a

father

Β

β

b

brother

Γ

γ

g

get

Δ

δ

d

deed

Ε

ε

e

net

Ζ

ζ

z

fez

Η

η

e

say

Θ

θ

th

thick

Ι

ι

i

in

Κ

κ

k

kiss

Λ

λ

l

lamb

Μ

μ

m

moon

Ν

ν

n

new

Ξ

ξ

x

extra

Ο

ο

o

ohm

Π

π

p

pie

Ρ

ρ

r

row

Σ

σ

s

signal

Τ

τ

t

tow

Υ

υ

u

rue

Φ

φ

f, ph

phone

Χ

χ

ch, kh

loch

Ψ

ψ

ps

perhaps

Ω

ω

o

home

However, for the transliteration of English into Greek the correspondences have to be directed the
other way.

The Latin Letters and Their Correspondences
to Greek Letters

LatinLetter

Greek

a

α

b

β

c

κ or σ

d

δ

e

ε

f

φ

g

γ

h

'

i

ι

j

none

k

κ

l

λ

m

μ

n

ν

o

ο, ω

p

π

q

κυι

r

ρ

s

σ

t

τ

u

υ

v

β

w

υι

x

ξ

y

none

z

ζ

ph

φ

th

θ

The Algorithms

The rule for the transliteration of English "c" into the Greek alphabet is that when it
is followed by "a", "o", "u", "r" or "l" it becomes κ. Also at the end of a word
it has the sound of κ. If "c" is followed by "e", "i", or "y" it has the sound of
σ.

If "t" or "p" are followed by "h" then they become θ or φ, respectively.
The English "gh" is a nuisance and in the transliterations here the "gh" is simply dropped,
as in thought and through.
This however is not always the correct handling, as in enough.

The English "y" is an "i" sound or an ai after a consonant and a yuh sound
otherwise as in year or boy. It is a fairly complex algorithm.

The dilemma is what to do about the English "ch" (as in church) and "sh" (as in shed or
shish-kabob). There is no good resolution of the problem. The Greek representation of
"h" appears to have been as an apostrophe ('). The least bad way to handle the
problem is to replace "sh" with σ' and then represent "ch" as "tsh"; i.e., as
τσ', with the student/reader being warned that these replacements are not in
the Greek system.

(To be continued.)

Here is a transliteration of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address into Greek letters.